Early Bird
Active member
About a week ago I received an email from hiking friend Ed that he and Dave would be leading a Zealand/Bonds traverse on January the 26th. Wow, that sounds great, I thought- a full day of hiking. I got out my map to check the total mileage. .8 then 2.9 to 4.4... I got up to 19 and decided, maybe it’s better if I don’t know exactly how long this is. So, I stopped adding.
The really hard part, the part I’d not done before, was going to be setting my alarm clock for 2:30 AM
to make the 5:30 trailhead meeting. Driving up RT 93 I kept thinking, this is where I usually am when the sky begins to turn a twilight blue. This is where I am when sunrise turns the world into I’m-glad-to-be-awake-to-see-this colors. Nothing of the sort this morning. The Zealand winter lot was dead of night dark. Ed had me pile into Rols’s car for the car spot to Lincoln Woods with Andy and Bruce where I promptly propped my head on the pile of backpacks. While they talked about hiking trips to Alaska, New Zealand, and Death Valley, I was half- asleep dreaming of my electric blanket. I promised to be more talkative on the trail.
At Lincoln Woods it was still too dark to see anyone really well, but I started hearing names I recognized- Lars, Marc Howes, Audrey, Dave, Eric. There were 13 of us in all. Most of us began barebooting up the Wilderness Trail at our own pace agreeing to regroup at the bridge. As the day began, I was finally enjoying the sunrise, daylight, and the chickadees along the way.
We stopped briefly at the Black Pond Tail and again at the bridge, waiting for all to regroup, we had a breakfast of sorts. I had my “healthy” organic pop tarts and enjoyed observing others’ choices- Gatorade, BK double cheese burgers, gorp, bagel sandwiches. From here, five began to snowshoe on, the rest of us still in our bare boots were doing all right to the Bondcliff Trail which we reached at a 2.6 mph pace including our breaks.
At this junction we chatted with a small group out for an overnight. I’d heard there was going to be an AMC group out backpacking this weekend, and we were wishfully thinking they might break trail for us. “Are you the AMC group,” I asked? They weren’t; they were group out of NY. They then asked if we were an AMC group. “No, we aren’t part of any one organization.” He looked incredulous that this large a group could get together in an unofficial club gathering. They’d posted their trip and gotten no responses. “We’re just friends of Ed- and Dave,” I tried to further explain. “The friends of Ed group.” I thought it had a nice ring to it. They still couldn’t quite believe it. From here we all donned our snowshoes, to save the trail, although it seemed well packed, and followed Eric’s quick clip up towards Bondcliff.
Walking up I talked with Joni about natural history, with Ron about his and his daughter’s upcoming finish of their 4K’s which a 6 month old grandbaby will be joining, and with Dave and Audrey on long distance cycling. We are at the ridge before I knew it. I am sort of thinking now it would have been nice to have checked our time here and there. But my mind set was don’t focus on time or distance. It’s going to be a long full day, just hike until you get back to the car. Zen hiking. Enjoy.
And enjoy I did. I enjoyed the roadless views, light to nonexistent winds on Bond Cliff and Bond, and group gear of 49 cent clearance Christmas cookies. I enjoyed the warming sun that allowed us to sit on West Bond to have our sandwiches and more group gear, Little Debbie snacks, without gloves or extra layers. I enjoyed the bright blue skies and miles of views and seeing Poison Ivy on her way to finishing her 4K on Bond. (Congrats!!) I enjoyed talking with Sarah about her amazing ultra-trail running feats. I enjoyed every step of the way and the perfect amout of mini-breaks we took. I enjoyed the Pringles jokes and the laughter that comes for a great group out in winter.
Mt. Guyot was very nice. I’d never done the stretch of trail connecting the Bonds to Zealand. It is always good to be on new territory. From there darker clouds began to fall away from Mt. Washington. In contrast, its snowy peak and the observatory looked like a castle rising above the clouds. I went for my camera and remembered I’d decided to leave it home. That was the first time I’d wished I’d had it. The second was coming off Zealand and viewing the presidential range, now completely out of the clouds and cast in pastel alpenglow. It would also have been great to have had a group shoot of all of us at some point along the way. Hopefully, others will post their pictures. Thirteen similarly paced happy winter hikers are a real treat to be out with.
At Zealand Hut we ditched our snowshoes and prepared for the descent by putting on headlamps. I also put my down jacket on under my shell not expecting to generate heat the rest of the way. We stuck together until we hit Zealand Road, where we’d continue down at our own pace and shuttle one anther back to Lincoln Woods as we arrived. I got back into my car my just before 8:00 PM, just less than 13½ hours after the start.
On the car ride back to Lincoln Woods I said, “I guess this is my longest winter hike.”
“It’s the longest winter hike there is,” I was told.
Well at least I know it doesn’t get any worse that this. Or any better.
The really hard part, the part I’d not done before, was going to be setting my alarm clock for 2:30 AM
to make the 5:30 trailhead meeting. Driving up RT 93 I kept thinking, this is where I usually am when the sky begins to turn a twilight blue. This is where I am when sunrise turns the world into I’m-glad-to-be-awake-to-see-this colors. Nothing of the sort this morning. The Zealand winter lot was dead of night dark. Ed had me pile into Rols’s car for the car spot to Lincoln Woods with Andy and Bruce where I promptly propped my head on the pile of backpacks. While they talked about hiking trips to Alaska, New Zealand, and Death Valley, I was half- asleep dreaming of my electric blanket. I promised to be more talkative on the trail. At Lincoln Woods it was still too dark to see anyone really well, but I started hearing names I recognized- Lars, Marc Howes, Audrey, Dave, Eric. There were 13 of us in all. Most of us began barebooting up the Wilderness Trail at our own pace agreeing to regroup at the bridge. As the day began, I was finally enjoying the sunrise, daylight, and the chickadees along the way.
We stopped briefly at the Black Pond Tail and again at the bridge, waiting for all to regroup, we had a breakfast of sorts. I had my “healthy” organic pop tarts and enjoyed observing others’ choices- Gatorade, BK double cheese burgers, gorp, bagel sandwiches. From here, five began to snowshoe on, the rest of us still in our bare boots were doing all right to the Bondcliff Trail which we reached at a 2.6 mph pace including our breaks.
At this junction we chatted with a small group out for an overnight. I’d heard there was going to be an AMC group out backpacking this weekend, and we were wishfully thinking they might break trail for us. “Are you the AMC group,” I asked? They weren’t; they were group out of NY. They then asked if we were an AMC group. “No, we aren’t part of any one organization.” He looked incredulous that this large a group could get together in an unofficial club gathering. They’d posted their trip and gotten no responses. “We’re just friends of Ed- and Dave,” I tried to further explain. “The friends of Ed group.” I thought it had a nice ring to it. They still couldn’t quite believe it. From here we all donned our snowshoes, to save the trail, although it seemed well packed, and followed Eric’s quick clip up towards Bondcliff.
Walking up I talked with Joni about natural history, with Ron about his and his daughter’s upcoming finish of their 4K’s which a 6 month old grandbaby will be joining, and with Dave and Audrey on long distance cycling. We are at the ridge before I knew it. I am sort of thinking now it would have been nice to have checked our time here and there. But my mind set was don’t focus on time or distance. It’s going to be a long full day, just hike until you get back to the car. Zen hiking. Enjoy.
And enjoy I did. I enjoyed the roadless views, light to nonexistent winds on Bond Cliff and Bond, and group gear of 49 cent clearance Christmas cookies. I enjoyed the warming sun that allowed us to sit on West Bond to have our sandwiches and more group gear, Little Debbie snacks, without gloves or extra layers. I enjoyed the bright blue skies and miles of views and seeing Poison Ivy on her way to finishing her 4K on Bond. (Congrats!!) I enjoyed talking with Sarah about her amazing ultra-trail running feats. I enjoyed every step of the way and the perfect amout of mini-breaks we took. I enjoyed the Pringles jokes and the laughter that comes for a great group out in winter.
Mt. Guyot was very nice. I’d never done the stretch of trail connecting the Bonds to Zealand. It is always good to be on new territory. From there darker clouds began to fall away from Mt. Washington. In contrast, its snowy peak and the observatory looked like a castle rising above the clouds. I went for my camera and remembered I’d decided to leave it home. That was the first time I’d wished I’d had it. The second was coming off Zealand and viewing the presidential range, now completely out of the clouds and cast in pastel alpenglow. It would also have been great to have had a group shoot of all of us at some point along the way. Hopefully, others will post their pictures.
Thirteen similarly paced happy winter hikers are a real treat to be out with. At Zealand Hut we ditched our snowshoes and prepared for the descent by putting on headlamps. I also put my down jacket on under my shell not expecting to generate heat the rest of the way. We stuck together until we hit Zealand Road, where we’d continue down at our own pace and shuttle one anther back to Lincoln Woods as we arrived. I got back into my car my just before 8:00 PM, just less than 13½ hours after the start.
On the car ride back to Lincoln Woods I said, “I guess this is my longest winter hike.”
“It’s the longest winter hike there is,” I was told.
Well at least I know it doesn’t get any worse that this. Or any better.
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